Give Mother Nature a hand

Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate and remember the hard work, sacrifices and love of the tireless women in our lives who nurture us as children and provide support throughout our lives. We honor them for all they have given us, and all that they continue to provide.

This Mother’s Day, why not add Mother Nature to the list of honorees? She does, after all, provide us with everything we need to live a healthy, happy life, and her efforts to bring us beauty and wonder never cease.

On May 14, consider gathering your whole family and taking some time to celebrate the mother of all mothers by thinking of simple but important ways to mother the earth on Mother’s Day.

Plant a garden. If the danger of frost is over in your neck of the woods, plant a brand new garden in your yard, or, if you live in an apartment and don’t have a patch of earth to garden, find out if there are community gardens in your neighborhood that you can use. Commit to using organic seeds and plants, and use natural fertilizers and pest control. You might also consider organizing a Foresters Gardening Activity where you gather with friends, family, and other volunteers to revamp a public neighborhood space like a local park, nursing home, or children’s hospital by tidying, weeding, and planting. Visit MyForesters.com for more information on this activity and how we can help.

Spruce up a playspace. Organize a Foresters Playfinders event to help make your local playgrounds summer-ready! This program provides the resources for you, your family and the Foresters community to explore the playspaces in your area, tidy them and make sure they’re mapped on the KaBOOM! Map of Play. For more information visit MyForesters.com.

Arrange a swap-shop event with likeminded friends. This is a great way to get rid of unwanted clothing, toys, books and other unwanted items in your home. It’s also a wonderful way to find a meaningful gift for the moms in your life while taking care of the planet. A few weeks before your event, invite a group of people to participate. Everyone brings over the items they want to part with the night before, and you set up your “shop” just like a real store, displaying the merchandise in your home (or in a community center or public building, if you have permission and think you’ll need a lot of space). The next day, everyone is invited over to browse and take home items they want or need for free. Anything leftover at the end of the day is donated to charity. For some great tips on hosting a successful swap shop, visit Planet Ark.

Recommit to recycling. Recycling is one of the simplest ways to protect the environment. For example, look for and purchase products that are made from recycled content, before you toss out large items like mattresses or unusual items like strings of lights, find out if they can be recycled in your area; put a clearly marked recycling bin beside your garbage can when you have guests over so they can recycle easily too; and donate old sheets and towels to animal shelters to be used as bedding in cages and crates. For more simple ways that you and your family can recycle and reduce waste every day, visit Rethink Recycling.

Pick up trash. Take the whole family out for a walk around your neighborhood, but arm yourselves with gardening gloves and trash bags so you can safely pick up any refuse you see that has been dumped in public spaces while you’re strolling. Call your city or town if you find discarded needles or other potentially dangerous items on public property so that the proper authorities can safely collect them. Don’t handle those items yourself.

Imagine your mom’s pride when she finds out that you’ll be spending some of Mother’s Day giving back to your community and the planet. And if your mom is no longer here, or Mother’s Day is difficult for any reason, this is a wonderful and productive way to celebrate the day in a way that gives it a whole new beautiful meaning.